


Take me to your river

by vivalarevolucion



Category: Legend (2015)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 20:30:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6023599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivalarevolucion/pseuds/vivalarevolucion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>‘Teddy, couldn’t do us a favour could ya? Could you be useful? When you take his trousers off tonight and his shirt, can you burn ‘em and check in with me?’</p>
<p>Teddy glances sideways at Mrs Kray and then gives a stiff nod. ‘Yeah.’</p>
<p>A firm pat on the shoulder from Reg seals the deal. ‘Good lad.’</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take me to your river

‘Where’s everybody gone?’

Mrs Kray emerges from the kitchen, rollers in her hair and a slice of cake in hand. Teddy’s eyes flit nervously from Kray to Kray at opposite ends of the coffee table, pokerfaced and resolute. The tension in the room is thick as butter.

‘Mum it’s late, I want ‘em out your hair.’ Reggie says softly, ‘You should get some bed time. Ron I’ll give you a lift home, come on.’

‘Oh s’alright,’ Ron slurs through a mouthful of cake, ‘I am home.’

‘I’ve made the bed up for him.’ Mrs Krays lowers a hand to her son’s cheek, ‘He’s not well, he’s got a fever. Gonna stay here the night.’ She pauses and looks over at Teddy on the sofa. ‘Teddy would you like to stay with him?’

This catches Teddy by surprise. He glances nervously at Reggie and back again.

‘Thank you,’ he mumbles, ‘that’d be very nice. Thank you Violet.’

‘Whatever he’s done,’ she says to Reggie, serious all of a sudden, ‘he’s your brother.’

‘Yeah.’ Reggie says pensively. He pulls a small glass bottle from his jacket pocket and sets it firmly on the coffee table in front of his brother. ‘Well here’s your Stematol mate. You should take that.’

Ron shakes his head in disgust, aggressively tucking into another bite of cake.

‘You know what, I’m gonna have to go actually,’ Reggie says abruptly, ‘I left the lads at work and we have to clean up, so I’m gonna say good night.’

As he stands to leave he leans in, whispering low in Teddy’s ear.

‘Teddy, couldn’t do us a favour could ya? Could you be useful? When you take his trousers off tonight and his shirt, can you burn ‘em and check in with me?’

Teddy glances sideways at Mrs Kray and then gives a stiff nod. ‘Yeah.’

A firm pat on the shoulder from Reg seals the deal. ‘Good lad.’

‘He’s lovely innie?’ Ron mumbles, firing an air gun at his twin’s back as he goes.

Violet chuckles to herself. ‘Right boys,’ she says, ‘I’m turning in. See you in the morning.’

‘Night mum.’ Ron grunts.

‘Night Violet.’ Teddy croaks with a tight smile.

 

 

A little while later the two of them traipse upstairs. There’s the soft sound of canned laughter and the flicker of the TV coming from under Violet’s door. Teddy’s never seen Ron’s childhood room before and hesitantly he cracks the door open. He feels nervous and twitchy, as if he’s trespassing where he shouldn’t be. Inside are two single beds positioned at opposite ends of the room. He knows whose is whose instantly. On Reggie’s side the walls are adorned with posters and photographs, lovingly kept by Violet after all these years. By contrast Ronnie’s side is sparse and Spartan; no need for anything on the walls, he keeps all the pictures inside his head does Ron. Teddy is drawn to a framed photograph over on the chest of drawers beside Reggie’s bed. He picks it up for closer inspection. Staring back at him are the two brothers as teenagers in their boxing gear, holding their gloves up to the camera. He remarks how young and vulnerable Ron looks, nothing like the great hulking beast Teddy knows today.

A cold hand on his shoulder nearly makes Teddy jump a foot in the air. He tenses, half expecting Ron to land him a smack upside the head for being nosey, but he doesn’t. Instead he just shuffles wearily over to the bed and sits down. Teddy vaguely wonders how two grown men are supposed to fit in such a tiny single bed, but then again they managed alright in Ron’s caravan, they’ll find a way now.

Teddy removes Ron’s clothes in silence. They move together in a quiet rhythm, a sequence well-rehearsed, not a word exchanged between them. Methodically Teddy works his way down. He has never seen Ron this quiet and docile, lifting his limbs obediently as Teddy slips his garments off one by one. By the time Teddy crouches down to untie Ron’s shoelaces he looks up to find Ron staring at him intently. He carefully sets the shoes to one side, clothes neatly folded on top, and pauses, unsure what to do next.

‘Everything’s gonna change now,’ Ron says, voice low and deliberate. Teddy’s not sure if he’s addressing him or just thinking out loud. Either way it’s perhaps the most lucid thing he has ever heard come out of Ron’s mouth.

‘You ain’t gonna change though, are ya Teddy?’ It’s a plea more than a question, and the gravity of it has Teddy’s stomach in knots.

‘Course not,’ he says softly with a grin, ‘I’m the same Mad Teddy as always. Certified insane.’

Ron doesn’t laugh. He reaches down and pulls Teddy up with a firm grip on both arms. When he motions to take off his belt Teddy lets him. He marvels at Ron’s hands, as big as dustbin lids, strong and commanding. These same hands that roam over his chest, a few hours earlier killed a man. Mortality sparks at Ron’s fingertips and flashes through Teddy like lightening.

They fuck almost in silence. Teddy clings to him like a lifeline, digging his fingers into the grooves of Ron’s back, as broad as the side of a house. Ron’s gaze on him is weighted and searching, and Teddy knows he will remember this moment in years to come.

Afterwards they lie in a tangle of sweaty limbs. Beside him Teddy hears Ron’s breath fall into a steady rhythm as he drifts into sleep. It’s hot and stuffy in the small room, and the air is close around them.

Teddy slowly extracts himself from under Ron’s heavy frame and pulls his clothes on. He feels peculiar, his whole body buzzing like a live wire. As he moves towards the door Ron’s arm shoots out from the covers and grabs his wrist, grip vice-like.

‘It’s only me,’ Teddy winces, ‘I’m off to see Reg.’

After a beat Ron’s grip goes slack and he pulls away again.

Teddy pauses for a moment, his eyes feasting on Ron’s huge form sprawled across the bed. For a minute he feels the wild impulse to lean down and kiss him, but something holds him back and he shuts the door with a quiet click.

Outside the air is crisp and cold. Teddy skips along the dimly lit streets, whistling to himself. Ron’s clothes are in a scrunched up ball in his hand. He feels deliriously happy.

 

 

He finds himself huddled by an upturned washing machine drum, staring into the open flames, transfixed by the way they dance and flicker before his eyes. He thinks back to the night’s proceedings, how a few hours ago Cornell was sat in the pub nursing a pint, oblivious to his impending death. And Ron, like some terrible angel of retribution arrived in a hail of bullets. _Fucking biblical mate._ Truth be told it both terrifies and thrills Teddy, how effortlessly Ron was able to kill a man. One minute he was alive, the next he was dead. For the first time it strikes Teddy how absurdly fragile life is. He laughs hysterically, head thrown back, breath billowing out in white staccato puffs, cackles reverberating like throwing knives around the scrapyard.

 

 

Once the deed is done he makes his way downtown to Reggie’s place. Formerly neighbours in the womb the twins now occupy the same tenement building, with Reg and his wife in the flat below Ron’s, the two joined by an umbilical cord of stairs. Teddy thumbs the tactile edge of the key in his pocket. Leslie never got given a key, he thinks smugly to himself. He finds Reggie up on the roof standing with his back to him, silhouetted against the backdrop of the London skyline. Reg doesn’t turn around as he approaches, but by instinct knows who it is.

‘You get it done?’ He asks gruffly.

‘Yeah.’ Teddy mumbles, coming to stand beside him.

‘Good lad.’

Teddy lights up and they fall into a companionable silence as they watch the dawn break across the city. There is something in the air, he can feel it. It’s like Ron said, _change_. The sun begins to rise over London, set out before them in all her glory. He remembers Reggie saying once that the world is a lot like London. It isn’t good and it isn’t bad, it just is. Teddy doesn’t know what the new day will hold for them; only time will tell. His purpose is simply to be whatever Ron needs him to be, and that is more than enough.


End file.
